How to Choose a Reliable Architect to Design Your Dream Home

how to choose architect

Architectural design is one of the early stages of building. It involves the use of creativity and knowledge of technical drawings to draw building plans, taking into account the need for aesthetics, space, and resource management.

The role of an architect cannot be undermined in the construction world.

Architects are in the best position to advise and develop a plan that will make optimum use of resources at your disposal.

They use creative abilities to produce innovative and imaginative designs that will manage your construction site and develop a building plan that will suit your taste and lifestyle and fit into your budget.

 

What Do Architects Do in Building Construction?

Architects are in a good position to submit building plans to town planning agencies for approval.

During this process, they act as middlemen between you and government authorities to provide relevant information to the planning agencies. They also interpret and give pieces of advice on government decisions.

Architects can also advise you on the right contractors and construction companies to patronize. This may be a result of their experiences from working with some of them, or their ability to use their technical knowledge to predict construction companies that will best fit your home.

All these give rise to why you should choose a good architect to draw the building plans for your dream home.

 

Criteria for Selecting an Architect for Your Home

Outlined below are useful tips that will guide you when looking for the perfect architect to design your home.

 

Consider the Nature and Purpose of Your Intended Home

You must note that there are several types of residential buildings.

If your family is an extended one and will need a spacy house, a duplex will be a suitable option. If your family is small, a bungalow might be suitable. All these considerations will affect the type of architect you will hire.

criteria for selecting an architect

Even though architects have been trained to design buildings of many types, there are tendencies that they may choose to specialize in a particular pattern, nature, and size of buildings. These specializations may be bungalows, story buildings, duplexes, wooden buildings, brick buildings, or stone buildings.

Whichever of these specialties they focus on, there are chances that they’re very good at it. As an intending landlord hoping to erect a house that will be suitable to live in, it is good to search for architects that design the type of buildings you wish to build.

 

Review the Architect's Profile

A good way to ascertain the experience and qualifications of an architect is by viewing their profile, which is now easily accessible through social media. In the architect's profile, you get to see samples or details of the kind of designs he has done, the people he has worked for, his locality, and what his charges look like.

Some of these profiles also contain reviews from the architect's past clients.

 

Get Referrals from Friends and Family

You may wish to consult friends and family members for the contacts of the architects that designed their homes. This may be because you have noticed that you like the design of their homes, and over time, you've continued to appreciate them. You can get the same design or a similar one if you contact the same architect that did theirs.

Also, friends and family are likely to give a more honest review of their dealings with their architects.

Unlike the reviews you may find on architects' social media profiles, your friends and family members will give you better advice if you should patronize the same architects that worked for them or not. Better still, they may simply tell you the pros and cons of dealing with the architects.

Nevertheless, consulting friends and family members may be to simply hear their opinions and not necessarily because of the beautiful designs you saw in their homes. They have your interest at heart and will do their possible best to recommend the best to you.

 

Get Interactive with Various Architects

After an intense search for a suitable architect, you may have gotten a long list of architects you've begun considering. But, you still have to streamline your search to just one or a few. A way of knowing who to pick is by getting to know them better.

Fix separate appointments with a number of them, discuss your intentions and desires for your home, and observe their responses. Check if they possess the basic qualities of a service provider and if their words are convincing enough to deliver what you want.

Since architectural design is a stage in building construction that may permanently determine the design of your building, you should take your time to screen the best architect on your list.

As you speak to the architects you come across, check if they are patient enough to listen to your intents or if they are bent on doing what suits them. Determine if they are just after the payment or if they are focused on making something beautiful and standard.

 

Visit Buildings in Your Locality

how to choose architect

You may take a drive around your neighborhood to observe the designs and structures of buildings around you. If you have a taste for modern designs, visit areas where a lot of building constructions are going on.

In some cases, you may find posts (by the side of the building) containing information about the architects and engineers involved in the construction; they may be nailed on the walls of the building.

If you come across any building with a beautiful design you desire, get the architect's contact from the post and reach out to them. Feel free to reach out to the workers on-site or the occupants of the building in the absence of the post.

 

Search Online

In an age where digitalization is taking over, the search for architects has been made easy. There are lots of internet forums, social media, blogs, and websites where you can find the contacts of architects. Although, this method is less effective compared to other methods as there is now a large infiltration of non-experts who pose as architects.

 

Qualities of a Good Architect

You’re bound to meet several architects in the course of the search for an architect that will design the plan of your dream home. Below are some tips you can use to quickly assess their competence. This will greatly increase your chances of getting the best for your building project.

 

Hard Work

In the course of training, architects are usually subjected to rigorous mathematical and technical teachings; they get used to being subjected to long hours solving problems. And this becomes their lifestyle in some cases.

Only architects that strive to get to the top of their profession will keep up with the level of hard work upon graduation. As a client, you can leverage this to get an architect that will give your building project the attention it deserves.

 

Love for Nature

criteria for selecting an architect

The ability of an architect to conceptualize his designs from natural bodies and natural phenomena goes a long way to show his level of creativity. This is almost a norm in the construction world.

Most masterpieces are usually modeled after natural concepts. The ability to exhibit this quality shows an architect’s level of ingenuity, and how he may be an indispensable factor if you hire him.

When searching for an architect for your dream home, watch out for their level of interest in nature. It could be a pointer to show who you should finally resolve to work with.

 

Good Listening and Communication Skill

Every client likes to be heard, irrespective of how bad and irrelevant his or her opinion may be. It takes an architect with good listening skills to be patient with clients. This a quality you should look out for.

As you get in talk with any architect you're considering hiring, observe his willingness to let you speak, and his ability to fine-tune and incorporate your ideas and needs into his building plan. Customer satisfaction is a priority in every deal.

 

Knowledge of Different Aspects of Life

The ideal architect must be grounded in other aspects of life aside from his profession. When he knows other fields of life, he will be able to communicate better with clients from all works of life. His level of exposure will influence his level of creativity.

 

Conclusion

An architectural design is a basis upon which every other engineering work should be carried out. Before you begin laying blocks for your home, make sure that you've gotten a good plan that will not only suit your taste but also pass the test of time in terms of beauty.

With this article, you’re equipped with what it takes to make the right decision in choosing an architect for your dream home.

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